3 Words You Should Never Say: “I Deserve Better”

Let’s start with a confession. I’ve been guilty of this one since the beginning of my career. When I first graduated from college, I was appalled to be offered a starting salary of $22K as an entry-level PR account coordinator. I was an A student at Northwestern, and “I deserved better.” A few years down the line, I had proven myself at a Fortune 500 software firm and had been promoted into middle management. But I was frustrated because I was often given assignments that no one else wanted. “I deserved better.” This past winter, when it came time to sell a new book, I flat out refused several offers that I perceived as too low. I felt like I had already paid my dues writing books for nothing. “I deserved better.”
Here’s the thing. We don’t deserve anything. Working hard means that sometimes we get the results we want, and sometimes we don’t. That’s just life. You may think that you deserve a higher salary, a heftier price for your product, or a more substantial fee for your service, but the market pays what it pays, and it’s usually nothing personal. In a capitalist society, people aren’t entitled to success and the compensation we receive isn’t always based on parity.
As I’ve told myself repeatedly, beware of irrational expectations. There’s no use complaining about the way things should be and railing against God, the establishment, or your nasty boss. You (and me) will be a lot happier accepting the reality and figuring out a way to move on from there.
Article by Alexandra Levit and courtesy of Water Cooler Wisdom blog.

Everyone Hates Conrad Black … Except Conrad Black

Black is a Canadian media mogul now behind bars after his conviction on charges of mail and wire fraud by US courts.
To the world he is rich, imperious, unethical: a walking, talking symbol of greed in the raw.
And he may be just that. The media hates him, many former employees hate him, shareholders too, as well as the man and woman on the street. They all hate him…..and perhaps for good reason.
It’s a hate fest. Everyone, it seems, has piled on. Except, well, except Conrad Black.
I just read a jailhouse interview with “the devil” himself and I was stunned by it. I will paraphrase some of the highlights:
* Black says prison is quite civilized, he has adapted to it and met a number of interesting people.
* He proclaims his innocence but is not bitter, holds that he can take anything life throws at him and treat it as a learning experience.
* The accomodations are not what he was used to in the splendor of his pre-incarceration days, but it’s all just fine for now.
I don’t know the precise nature of Black’s crimes and given my faith in the legal system, I assume he belongs where he is. But there is an important subtext here. All of us are, at times, on the outside of mainstream thinking. Or we are viewed as being wrong or negligent or stupid or selfish. Black is viewed as worse, as a criminal and a Robber Baron, but the subtext remains the same:
You must always have faith in yourself.
You must always know how to adapt.
You must remain flexible in a life that constantly changes.
You must be tough enough to take the curve balls, without whining, and find a way to toss them back at the fates.

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Diversity Programs Essential for Corporate Success

Globalization the catalyst for expanded diversity strategies
As corporate workforces start to resemble Olympic villages, diversity programs are becoming a mission-critical piece of most organizations. Nearly three- quarters of all responding companies and a whopping 85% of firms with 10,000 or more workers have either expanded the scope of their diversity strategies thanks to globalization or have plans to do so, according to a recent study by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp).
Diversity programs have become an essential strategy in today’s heterogeneous and increasingly global marketplace. The study finds that almost half (48%) of all polled companies have a diversity strategy in place on both domestic and global fronts, a number that jumps to 59% among large organizations. Conversely, just 23% of responding companies overall report they have no diversity strategy at all, and the number shrinks to just 11% for companies with more than 10,000 workers.
“Diversity programs have gone from nice-to-have to must-have for most firms,” says Jay Jamrog, i4cp senior vice president of research. “Strong diversity strategies help in the attraction and retention of top talent as well as customer relations, and companies not paying attention to that are missing the boat. What is a bit shocking is that almost a quarter of companies have yet to address the issue.”
At the top of the perceived benefits of bolstering a global diversity strategy is the creation of stronger relationships with partners and customers, with 71% of companies affirming the importance of this reason to a high or very high extent. Providing the ability to attract top talent via reputation as an employer of choice was similarly cited by 70% – increasing to 75% among large companies – while 64% of companies said their global diversity strategy supports their culture and branding efforts to a high or very high extent.
Chief among the challenges to global diversity strategies is the lack of universal measurement, reported by 36% of all respondents as being an issue to a high or very high extent, increasing to 42% among large companies. A “varied acceptance” of diversity initiatives was pointed to by 36% of all respondents, while a third of companies said cultural barriers present hurdles.
Article courtesy of Kennedy Information Recruiting Trends providing leading edge insights and strategies for the recruiting professional

Ethics of Potential Employers Critical Factor for New College Graduates

The ethical–or unethical–behavior of an organization is a critical factor for new college graduates seeking jobs, according to a new study conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).

In fact, NACE’s 2008 Graduating Student Survey found that current-day graduates are much more likely to shy away from employers they perceive as engaging in unethical behavior than were their counterparts who graduated in1982.
NACE compared the attitudes of the college Class of 2008 to those of the college Class of 1982, based on current survey results and those of a similar study conducted by the NACE Foundation in 1982.
“We found that there was a great deal of agreement between both groups of graduates on what was and wasn’t ethical. However, in most instances, current graduates had a stronger reaction to unethical behavior and were much more likely to say they would not work for an organization if it engaged in such behavior,” says Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director.
For example, 98 percent of both 2008 and 1982 graduates identified “producing a harmful product” as unethical. However, in terms of their reaction to that behavior, 59 percent of 2008 graduates said they would not work for such an organization while 42 percent of 1982 graduates took that stance. (See Figure 1.)
“Their strong reaction suggests that Millennial generation students have a heightened awareness of the importance of company ethics,” says Mackes.
Since 1956, theNational Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has been the leading source of information about the employment of college graduates. NACE maintains a virtual press room for the media at www.naceweb.org/press/.

Focus On Reinvention, Not Recession

So the economy is slowing down and business confidence is falling as governments step into bail out financial institutions.
Does that just mean doom and gloom? For some people, maybe. But for forward-thinking individuals it’s a tremendous opportunity to reinvent themselves rather than worrying about all the headlines of recession and downturn.
As many firms go through the painful process of reinventing themselves to meet the demands of a new market place and economy, reinventing yourself and your career is exactly what you should be focused on right now – regardless of whether you have been impacted by restructuring and redundancy.

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Employers Admit to Disqualifying Candidates Due to Facebook Content

My conversations with dozens and perhaps even hundreds of employers who hire college students for internships and recent graduates for entry level jobs have led me to believe that about 75 percent are searching social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace as part of their background checking process. But one question that was harder to answer was how many of those employers have declined to hire a candidate because of content on those sites.
Careerbuilder recently surveyed hiring managers and found that of those admit to screening job candidates using Facebook, MySpace, and other social networking sites, 34 percent admit to dismissing a candidate from consideration because of what they found on the social networking sites. The top areas for concern among these hiring managers were:

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Best Practices for Using Cell Phone Text Messaging to Recruit College Students, Recent Grads, and Alumni

Nicole Bodem at HR Search Marketing just posted a play-by-play blog posting of the free webinar that we hosted today on how employers can use cell phone text messaging (SMS) to recruit college students, recent graduates, and alumni.
I’ll post the recording of the webinar here within a week but in the meantime, Nicole did a great job of capturing all of the crucial details.

What is your major and what made you choose that major to start your career?

I really did not know what to aim for when I first started but I knew that I like to fix things and had a very strong interest in learning new things. Then I knew that the future was in Technology that in order to have a decent job your chances would be multiplied with technical skills. That is how I chose my major in Technical Occupations/Electronics. I do know that you need to be in the right place for these opportunities though living in rural communities lessen your opportunities.

– Submitted by V. G. from through the CollegeRecruiter.com Career Blog Application on Facebook.com.

What’s the best company you have ever worked with?

Alvin Ailey Dance School

– Submitted by N. R. from Sunnyside, New York, United States through the CollegeRecruiter.com Career Blog Application on Facebook.com.

6 Practical Tips to Attract and Retain Competent Employees

Hiring people used to be an easy task. Some managers and business owners that I have worked with thought that it is easier these days to recruit employees because of the rising unemployment rate. They further assert that we have a lot of surplus talents waiting to be tapped. Incidentally, that is partly true. However, while there is indeed a huge potential number of candidate employees, small businesses are still confronted with a shortage of qualified and competent employees.

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